Just when you thought there couldn't be another weird headline coming out of New York Giants training camp, you get proven wrong. On Saturday, the team signed former Dallas Cowboys starting center Joe Looney in a move that reunited him with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, but the renewal of vows lasted all of four days. The veteran lineman is deciding to call it a career versus continuing on with Big Blue, ending his NFL career after nine seasons, the team announced.
The news of Looney's decision comes just one day after a brawl broke out at Giants training camp -- with quarterback Daniel Jones on the bottom of the pile -- which led to head coach Joe Judge launching into a tirade of furious expletives followed by making the entire team run laps and drills until he was satisfied it had learned its lesson.
Apparently, what Looney saw in New York is not a culture he'd like to be a part of. He joins linebacker Todd Davis as the second player to retire only days after signing with the club.
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The 30-year-old was seen being his usually jovial self recently in press conferences, and spoke to what he was expected to bring to the table for the O-line-needy Giants: an ability to be a more-than-capable backup interior lineman who could also start when asked to do so. Instead, Judge and Garrett must now find another solution to that continuing problem in front of Jones, along with the added concerns they now have with the hamstring injury to wide receiver Kenny Golladay and, apparently, a potential rift in the locker room stemming from (or leading up to) Tuesday's brouhaha.
Looney was a fourth-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers (2012) who also spent time with the Tennessee Titans before joining the Cowboys in 2016, where he spent his past four NFL seasons. In the wake of news regarding Travis Frederick's diagnosis of Guillain-Barre Syndrome in 2018, Looney was thrust into the role of full-time starting center and proved more than capable. His production that season primed him for what was eventually Frederick's retirement from the NFL in 2020, but bouts with injury dampened last season for him (though still available for 13 games and having previously not missed a single game since 2015).
The Cowboys opted to move on to naming Tyler Biadasz the starting center in 2021, with Connor Williams getting camp reps behind him -- clearing the path for Garrett to finally get Looney to New York after having not convinced him to do so in 2020.
He was able to woo him in 2021, but things never made it past the second date.
